Approved by President Barden 1/23/07
Approved APAC 11/28/06

Evening Classes
Evening classes begin at 4:30 p.m. or later. Three credit classes meet for a total of 150 minutes of actual instructional time each week and four-credit classes meet for 200 minutes of instructional time each week.

Each evening course is required to meet at its regularly scheduled times throughout the term. The normal number of meeting times is 16, but under no circumstances may a class meet fewer than 15 times.  The class must meet during the "final class schedule" days.

MnSCU Policies
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities web page Board Policies Table of Contents lists all system policies.

Off-Campus Classes
Classes are sometimes held off-campus, either in the Moorhead area, or in smaller towns within reasonable driving distance throughout northwestern Minnesota. Class formats may be the same as regular on-campus daytime classes, evening classes (see above), or Saturday classes (also, see above), depending on the target audience.

Office Hours
Reasonable time should be allotted beyond classroom hours to meet with students; alternatively, a telephone number and email address where you can be reached should be included on the class syllabus. Some Departments may require their adjunct faculty to post and keep hours. (See your Department policies for any such requirement.)

Patents and Intellectual Property

A faculty member shall be entitled to complete ownership and control of any patentable discoveries or inventions, or of intellectual property, except where the faculty member’s normal workload was reduced for purposes of the development project, where the university has provided substantial support for or involvement in the project, or where inventions or discoveries are produced as a result of agreements or contracts between the university and external sponsors. See IFO/MnSCU Agreement, Article 27, Section C, Subd. 4 for specifics. For additional information on Intellectual Property and Copyright, refer to MnSCU.

Probation & Suspension Policy
Students at MSUM are required to make and maintain satisfactory academic progress. This means there are minimum cumulative GPA thresholds and a percent of credit completion that students must achieve. Students are responsible for determining their own academic status, and by monitoring the "Holds" section of the online web registration program, and by comparing their own progress to the standards listed below.

• At 1 to 26 total attempted credits, students must have a cumulative GPA of 1.60 or higher.

• At 27 to 59 attempted credits, students must have a cumulative GPA of 1.90 or higher.

• At 60 or more attempted credits, students must have a cumulative GPA of 2.00 or higher.

Percent Completion:
All students must complete 66.66% of the MSUM credits they attempt.

Attempted credits include all MSUM courses on a student’s official record, including withdrawals, repeated courses, and grades of Incomplete.

Courses taken for Audit are not counted as credits attempted or earned for Satisfactory Academic Progress.

Withdrawals, grades of F, FN, NC, Z, and Incompletes count against percent completion because they result in zero credits earned for that course.

Transfer credits are not included in the percent completion calculation, as required by MnSCU policy.

Percent completion is calculated by dividing the number of earned credits by the number of attempted credits.

Academic Probation/Academic Suspension:

Academic probation holds are placed after the grading period at the end of each semester.  After any end-of-semester grading period in which a student’s cumulative GPA or percent completion falls below the requirements, that student is placed on Academic Probation.

Students go off of academic probation only when their cumulative GPA and percent completion are raised enough to meet or exceed the minimum standards.

When a student is on academic probation there are two consequences:

1. If a student on academic probation does not meet the minimum semester requirements for GPA and percent completion, that student will be suspended.  Semester requirements for students on probation are to earn a 2.0 minimum GPA, and to earn at least 66.66% of the credits being attempted during the semester.

2. Students on academic probation cannot pre-register for the next semester’s classes.  Overrides to allow pre-registration can be obtained by meeting certain conditions.  Probationary students are notified of these conditions by letter and mass e-mail.

Students who are suspended for the first time may not return to MSUM for one semester (not including summer term).  Second suspensions last one calendar year.  Third and subsequent suspensions last for two calendar years.  Students who are suspended may appeal their status to the Suspension Appeals Committee.  Forms, information, and deadlines for the suspension appeal process are available in the Office of Academic Affairs, Owens 206, and on the Academic Affairs web site, under Academic Support Programs.

Students are responsible for checking on their academic and hold status each semester.  Students who are placed on academic probation and suspension are notified by letter from the Office of Academic Affairs.  Students are responsible for keeping their local and permanent addresses updated in their computerized records.

Procedure

Students are put on probation each semester that their cumulative GPA or percent completion remains or falls below the required standards.  Probation holds are placed at the end of each semester after the grading period.

At the end of each semester, final grades are recorded.  Semester requirements for students on probation are to earn a 2.0 minimum GPA, and to earn at least 66.66% of the credits being attempted during the semester.  Students on academic probation who did not fulfill the requirements are suspended, and registration holds are released for probationary students who did fulfill the requirements.

Students on probation who successfully completed their semester requirements but still have cumulative totals below the overall minimums remain on probation.  Students whose cumulative totals go above the minimums are removed from probation.

Students can be on academic probation more than one semester, because it often requires more than one semester to raise the cumulative GPA/percent completion to the necessary level.

If a probationary student’s cumulative GPA or percent completion is raised above the minimums during a semester due to a grade change, withdrawal, etc., that student should contact the Office of Academic Affairs to check on their status.  Probationary status is checked by the University only after the end-of-semester grading periods, so students must notify Academic Affairs of changes occurring at other times.

Saturday Classes
Saturday “packaged” courses are offered through the Continuing Studies department. These classes combine packaged materials with seven 2 ½-hour class meetings approximately every other Saturday of the term. Students work independently to learn the assigned material outside of class and class meetings are used for discussion, lectures, presentations, and test taking.

Student Absences
Students are expected to attend all class meetings unless they are ill or officially excused as the result of participation in a university function. However, faculty members may or may not take roll in their classes, and they may or may not lower the marks of students for the sole reason of unexcused absences. If a faculty member has a practice of penalizing for nonattendance, he/she must (a) announce the policy regarding the penalty for nonattendance in writing during the first week of class, (b) not penalize the student for nonattendance unless the student is absent without official excuse for more class periods during the term than the number of periods the class meets each week (or more than two class periods during a summer session), (c) maintain accurate attendance records, and (d) submit in writing to the Vice President for Academic Affairs the explicit class attendance policy statement. As a point of clarification, if a student has an unexcused absence for a class session during which an examination or other graded exercise is scheduled and the student has more unexcused absences than the number of times the class meets each week, this policy permits the faculty member to reduce the student’s grade for the sole reason of the unexcused absences and for failure to complete the graded assignment.    

In cases of individual absence due to jury duty or other legal obligations, the student must notify his/her faculty instructors prior to the absence. Each faculty member will determine the work to be made up and any effect on the course grade. For military absences, see the MSU Moorhead Bulletin index under military withdrawal, or refer questions to the Records office.

In the case of individual absence due to health or other emergency, the student must notify his/her faculty instructor as soon as feasible. Each faculty member will determine the appropriateness of the absence, all work to be made up, and any effect on the course grade.  

When an official university activity conflicts with scheduled classes, students participating in the official activity will be regarded as excused. Within the limits of feasibility, an excused absence assures a student the right to make up the missed class requirement(s).  The nature, time, and place of the make-up work are at the discretion of the instructor. Official university events are those that are approved by the appropriate dean, athletic director, or vice president. At least two weeks prior to the activity, lists of participating students should be distributed to those affected faculty members by the faculty member or organization advisor who will be overseeing the university activity. In the case of conflict about the appropriateness of an absence or the feasibility of the student making up missed work, the faculty members involved should confer directly; the student should not be expected to mediate the conflict. In cases where the faculty members involved cannot agree to a solution, the dean(s) of the respective colleges can be called upon to mediate. 

Students wishing to appeal academic decisions or policies further may do so by appealing in writing to the Academic Appeals Committee (Owens 206).  

Implementation:  Fall Semester 2003
Clarification:  Spring Semester 2004

Student and Faculty/Staff Travel Policy

Faculty and staff members may not share and shall not be compensated for the cost of lodging shared with students when traveling for university-sponsored activities. For purposes of this policy, graduate students serving in a para-professional capacity (e.g., assistantships, internships, and the like) are deemed to be staff, and appropriate lodging arrangements will be determined, and communicated to the graduate student in writing by the administrative supervisor, at least 10 days in advance of travel. Under limited circumstances (e.g., extended outdoor camping during field studies in archaeology, biology, or geology, or supervised lodging in university residence halls, and the like) exceptions to this policy may be granted. A request for an exception shall be submitted for approval by the supervising dean or director, in writing, at least 10 days in advance of travel. 

Approved by Cabinet 10/15/01

Student Email Policy

All official University business will be conducted via "mnstate.edu" email accounts. Email communication to students will be sent to the mnstate.edu email address exclusively.

Presidential memo 3/25/08